The program maintains a general format of news stories, traffic reports and weather forecasts, but also includes sports summaries, and entertainment and feature segments.

Kent Shocknek and Pat DaSilva were the original anchors of the program, with Christopher Nance handling weather duties, and Fred Roggin appearing in a sports segment that was pre-taped the night before.

Eventual successors at the Today in L.A. anchor desk included Kathy Vara, David Cruz, Kelly Mack, Chris Schauble and Jennifer Bjorklund.

Vara, Mack, Cruz and Schauble eventually left the station; Vara later returned to KNBC in March 2010 after nine years at crosstown ABC O&O KABC-TV (channel 7),[1] and Schauble later became anchor of the 4-7 a.m. block of KTLA (channel 5)'s weekday morning newscast in early 2011.

KCAL-TV (channel 9) briefly ran an hour-long morning newscast during its early years under the ownership of The Walt Disney Company (prior to the company's purchase of KABC and the subsequent sale of KCAL to Young Broadcasting in 1996), before cancelling it and replacing the program with children's programming.